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BBC News
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Jasmine's journey from Shropshire to the West End
It was watching the Lion King musical at the Birmingham Hippodrome aged 11 that made Jasmine Jia Yung Shen realise she wanted to forge a career on 27, she has achieved that near-lifelong dream - landing a role in Hamilton on London's West up in Ludlow, Shropshire, she had started dancing and performing aged four but as a teenager, she realised that to pursue her goal she would have to leave the county. "You're born in Ludlow, you're raised in Ludlow, you might stay in Ludlow forever... and that's so okay, but for me personally I just knew that there was a bigger world out there," she told the BBC."Now that I'm here doing it, I just think it's mad, and I have never, ever taken this for granted." Jasmine moved to London aged 18 to study at Bird College, an independent performing arts college, and met a lot of new people. Jasmine is a British-born Asian woman of two Chinese parents, and did not see many who looked like her growing from the 2011 census - which happened when Jasmine was about 13 - shows 98.3% of Ludlow's population was white, while 0.6% was Asian or Asian British."In terms of actual representation, I know no one from Ludlow or any of the sorts... as I've gotten older I've met people through different jobs or the industry as a whole," she said."There's been a lot more people who are actually from Shropshire, whether it be Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth... who are either East Asian, Southeast Asian, or black, mixed-race black. "I'm just like: 'This is crazy, we're all from Shropshire. Where have you been my whole life?'" After graduating from Bird College in 2019 she landed her first professional job as Catherine of Aragon in Six The Musical on a Norwegian Breakaway cruise next job was playing Ali in the Mamma Mia! UK through the tour, she was asked to be the third cover for the role of Sophie - the character played by Amanda Seyfried in the Hollywood she had her day as Sophie, which Jasmine described as "such a special moment"."That year we had a mixed-race South Asian Sophie anyway on the tour, which already within itself is quite ground-breaking, because usually the Sophies... are white presenting," she said. "The fact that the director was so accepting - it's just based off your talent."It is not how you look, it's a story at the end of the day, it's a made up story."She then clinched a role on the Hamilton UK Tour as a standby Schuyler sister, completing 91 shows in this year, she landed her first-ever West End job in Hamilton on London's West plays Peggy Schuyler in act one and Maria Reynolds in act two, making her debut on 16 June."Transitioning between the tour and coming into West End is crazy," she said."I get to do it every single night - it's insane to me... I will never get over this at all." 'I'm here because I deserve to be' "I am the only East Asian person on that stage," she said. "The fact that I can see people in the audience dotted around who are East Asian, who maybe have kids... and it's their first musical, I'm like: 'Oh, my god... this is absolutely insane'."She said she used to wonder if she had only got roles because of her ethnicity."Now I think: 'No, I'm here because I deserve to be here, and I'm talented enough to be here'." Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Jersey actor to play leading Percy Jackson role in West End show
A Jersey actor has been announced as the leading role in a West End Gregory will be playing Percy Jackson in The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical at The Other Palace in London from 24-year-old said his love of the arts was inspired from a young age and that his career would not have been possible "without the Jersey" performing arts who moved from playing ensemble to the main role after auditioning and acting up as the lead for a week, said he was "over the moon" to officially land the role. He said: "I love the show, I love the people, we have such a fun time... it's a real fun piece of theatre, so I think taking that step of of being of now playing the role full time will be will be interesting."Gregory added he was nervous: "Percy kind of sits in this high energy place the whole time, so bringing that eight times a week is tough, but I'm really looking forward to it." 'Just so grateful' Gregory's past stage credits include performing in 42 Balloons, Elf, Newsies and Back to the Future. Before heading to London to attend a performing arts course at Bird College, Gregory had appeared in a plethora of shows in said: "The dream back in Jersey was to just kind of get to London and hopefully be on the West End one day, that was always the pipeline dream. "To be in a position where I'm taking on parts is kind of more than I ever could have hoped for and I'm just so grateful to be doing that, but it's still down to those years in Jersey, of doing Jersey Academy of Dancing and Drama Lab and all that stuff." Gregory said there was "never another option" when it came to his career."My mum went to a drama school in the UK when she was younger and she was so brilliant in what she did with the amateur dramatic community, it was always my life anyway," he said. When asked what people could expect from his performance as Percy Jackson, Gregory said they would "love every single minute of it".He said: "Most of the time the people and the kids coming to watch this, it's their first time sitting in a theatre, so to be up there and and being their first time watching this magic on stage is a wonderful thing. "My aim right now is to just is to deliver that and bring that magic to life."Gregory's first performance as the official lead role will take place on Wednesday 5 March.
